Unrest over the Christian accused of insulting the Prophet, 284

In 284 AH a Christian man was arrested and witnesses testified that he had insulted the Prophet, and he was jailed. The next day common people gathered over his case and shouted at al-Qasim ibn Ubayd Allah, demanding that the prescribed penalty be carried out against him. On Sunday, thirteen days before the end of the month, the people of Bab al-Taq and the markets nearby gathered and went to the sultan's house. Abu al-Husayn Ibn al-Wazir met them, and they shouted at him. He told them that he had sent word of the matter to al-Mu'tadid, but they disbelieved him, spoke to him in terms he disliked, and pounced on his attendants until the attendants fled. They went on to the gate of al-Mu'tadid and entered through the first and second gates, but were stopped; they then attacked those who stopped them. Someone came out and asked what they wanted; they told him, and he wrote about it to al-Mu'tadid. The caliph sent for Judge Yusuf to look into the matter, and the messenger went with them to the judge. In the crush they nearly killed him and the judge, until the judge got through a gate, which was shut behind them. ¹

The episode depicts the movement of the common people of Baghdad: from Bab al-Taq to the vizier's house, and then to the gates of the caliph's palace. In the crush, the caliph's message to the judge could hardly get through, in one of the urban uprisings of the late third century AH. ¹